1. Field of Invention
An attachment for front end loaders and for tree cutting devices attached to a front end loader provides an extending serrated edge which may be positioned below the ground surface in front of the loader or the tree cutting device to remove small saplings and cut through roots around a tree. The attachment may also be retracted into an upright position out of the way of the front end loader, a front bucket or a front mounted tree cutting device when using the bucket or tree cutting device and hydraulically extended forward to push a tree being cut in a direction in front of the tree cutting device and away from the front end loader.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to grubber attachments and tree saw devices.
Grubber has been known in the art as a term describing machine attachments adapted to tractors and other powered agricultural or industrial vehicles which are attached to the powered vehicles, either by hydraulics or a three point hitch, in front of or behind the equipment. It is utilized to cut below or at the surface of a location to remove vegetation or debris and to cut through subsurface roots. These earlier grubber devices are disclosed in the prior art below.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,506,662 to Cusenbury is a tree grubber attached to a tractor in the front of the tractor to remove trees and tree stumps, being inserted underneath the tree or stump and raised or pried from the dirt. This grubber bit has a serrated edge mounted between two support arms and is adapted to the hydraulics of the tractor, with the lifting apparatus being the supplied hydraulic connection at the bit and also the frame incorporated into the transmission of the tractor through gears and sprockets. The hydraulics apply the force to direct the bit underneath the stump, with the front end of the frame being lifted by the tractor transmission.
Adapted to a three point hitch of a tractor is the tree grubber disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,644 to Harkness which has a front lower sharpened V-shaped blade and a rear a serrated flat edge, the serrated edge being planted in the ground to serve as a fulcrum for the front V-shaped blade, the V-shaped blade being the cutting blade for the device to lift a tree, a tree stump or a stone from the ground. A root grubber is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,340 to Muncy which is adapted to a boom arm of a backhoe. It includes a V-shaped cutting edge which may be applied under the ground to uproot a tree or a tree stump as attached to the backhoe.
A bareroot tree and stump extraction device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,831 which utilizes a plurality of forward extending tines to either dig below the surface to uproot a tree, preferably disclosed for use in lifting bareroot trees without losing the surrounding earth on the roots of the tree. This patent is disclosed more for the mounting plate to which the tines are attached to demonstrate the back mounting plate used in the present device which is ideal for use in the present invention as the mounting plate frame 10 engaging the tool connection plate 13 of the powered vehicle to which the present grubber and push bar attachment device would employ when not adapted to a tree saw, disclosed below.
Implements associated with powered vehicle used in construction and land development intended for adaptation by the present grubber and push bar attachment device include the Marshall Tree Saw, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,971 to Marshall and advertised for sale at www.marshalltreesaw.com and www.abcgroff.com. Other tree saw devices to which the present device may be adated include U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,978 to Simpson, U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,279 to Underwood or U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,144,993 and 5,101,873, both to Marshall, as well as many of the attachments disclosed in the BOBCAT® advertisement found at www.bobcat.com and pages 38 through 47 of the “WORKSAVER BOBCATALOG 2005”.